The Deal with I’s Mother

(You activated the mind-reading ability of the mask, but it still didn't work. You realize that it's because you asked the wrong question.)

(Woman: I don't believe you. How do you know where my body is?)

(You take the woman's withered corpse out of your kangaroo pants.)

(The woman's face changes dramatically.)

(Woman: Give me back my body, and I can tell you a secret.)

(You: What secret?)

(Woman: I can tell you the dean's weakness. I can tell you how to kill him.)

(You activate the mind-reading again and ask if the woman is lying.)

(The mask tells you that the woman is not telling the truth.)

(You: I know his weakness. I don't need that information.)

(Woman: What do you need then?)

(You think for a moment and point to the doll on the woman's knee.)

(The woman is shocked.)

(Woman: That's a keepsake from my daughter. I can't give it to you.)

(You: Everything has a price.)

(Woman: Let me think about it.)

(The woman holds the doll and looks at it for a while.)

(Woman: I agree to trade with you.)

(You: Okay.)

(You place the woman's body on the floor.)

(The woman gets off the chair and hands the doll to you.)

(You are examining the doll when suddenly you hear a grating sound.)

(You look up.)

(The woman opens her mouth and devours her own body.)

(She turns completely black, with only her eyes flickering with red light.)

(She transforms into a creature covered in black fur, resembling a larger version of Petz.)

(Woman: Give me back the doll!)

(The woman lunges at you.)

(You immediately swallow a red pill and put on the elephant mask.)

(You are no match for the woman.)

(She tears you in half.)

(Your vision turns blood red.)

(You are dead.)

(The deduction ends!)

Gu Yi sat on the toilet and rubbed his stomach.

This was probably the most brutal death he had experienced in his deductions. After the woman turned into a monster, she tore him apart like tearing a chicken leg.

Transforming into a monster and wearing the elephant mask was the strongest form Gu Yi could achieve at the moment, but it still wasn't enough to defeat the woman.

"I had a feeling that something was off with this woman."

Gu Yi regretfully slapped his thigh.

Since this woman was so unreasonable, he had no choice but to resort to some unscrupulous means.

(Backtracking begins!)

(You stand in front of the secret room's door.)

(You put on Toto's handmade mask and approach the woman.)

(The woman looks up as soon as she sees you.)

(Woman: Who are you? Why do you have my daughter's mask? What do you want?)

(You: I'm here to negotiate with you.)

(Woman: Negotiate? What kind of negotiation?)

(You: I can give you your body.)

(You take the woman's corpse out of your kangaroo pants.)

(As soon as the woman sees her own corpse, she gets excited, and you quickly hide the body.)

(Woman: Give it to me!)

(You: I will give it to you, but you must give me the doll you have in your hands. It's a fair trade.)

(Woman: Give me the body first, and then I'll give you the doll.)

(You: No, you give me the doll first, and then I'll give you the body.)

(Woman: You have no right to bargain with me. If you don't give it to me, I can kill you and still get my body back.)

(You: If you dare to kill me, I will smash the mask on my face first.)

(You take out a hammer from your kangaroo pants and place it on the mask.)

(The woman screams.)

(Woman: You can't do that!)

(You grin.)

(Just as you deduced, "I" didn't actually die, so if you smash the mask, the real "I" will also cease to exist.)

(Woman: Please don't do something so extreme. There's still hope for my daughter's survival. Please don't harm her.)

(You: Then follow my demands. Give me the doll first.)

(The woman compromises.)

(She looks at the doll in her hands and uses her own hair to hand it to you.)

(As soon as she loses the doll, the woman's face visibly withers.)

(You inspect the doll but don't find anything special on it. However, behind the doll, you see a zipper.)

(You unzip it and find a red access card inside.)

(Woman: You... give me my body quickly.)

(You: Give it to you? Hmph, give it to you and let you kill me? Dream on!)

(You keep the doll, leave the secret room, and exit the office.)

(The woman's heart-wrenching screams echo throughout the office.)

(You leave the room with the doll in your hands.)

(Your vision turns blood red.)

(You take off the mask.)

(The mask is shedding tears of blood, and you notice that the same words are written all over the mask.)

("Good deeds are rewarded, and evil deeds have consequences..")

("Good deeds are rewarded, and evil deeds have consequences.")

("Good deeds are rewarded, and evil deeds have consequences.")

(Your heart starts beating rapidly, just like the feeling you had when you picked up the woman's corpse in the third-floor office.)

(You: Why are you punishing me instead of punishing your good mother? Wasn't she the one who committed the evil first? If I don't deceive her, she will kill me!)

("Good deeds are rewarded, and evil deeds have consequences.")

("Evil deeds have consequences...")

("Consequences...")

(Your sanity collapses.)

(You completely transform into a monster.)

(You die.)

(Deduction over!)

"Damn it, whose side is Toto really on?"

Gu Yi opened his eyes again and cursed under his breath.

The mental shock he experienced during the deduction was too great, and it deepened his contamination in reality. He noticed black hairs had started to grow on his left wrist.

Reluctantly shaking his head, Gu Yi closed his eyes again and contemplated his next move.

(Deduction begins!)

(You sit on the toilet, reflecting on the lessons from before.)

(Obviously, this time, you were punished by "I" for not keeping your promise and transformed into a monster.)

(This so-called Toto seems to have a kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder.)

(She established this rule with blood-red text, seemingly cursing the dean, but in reality, it restricts your actions.)

(If you keep doing evil, betray promises, and refuse to save lives, the difficulty of the scenario will increase significantly, and it may even trigger an instant death flag.)

(You furrow your brow and ponder.)

(You think that you might not have triggered the "evil deeds have consequences" rule.)

(But this rule subtly influences the difficulty of your progress and wouldn't immediately result in instant death.)

(You believe that the true reason for your brutal death is that you didn't adhere to the Pig Head's principles, and your behavior didn't meet the standards of a merchant.)

(The Pig Head mask represents a merchant in the dungeon world.)

(The shop owner in the small shop is your best example.)

(He would agree on the rules with you in advance, and once both parties agree on the rules, he would never go back on his word. Within the boundaries of the rules, he can cheat, manipulate, and exploit, but he would never violate the rules.)

(Even if he gets caught cheating, he wouldn't regret or get angry; he would still honor his promise and give you what he had promised, intact.)

(When you were trading with the woman, you clearly agreed if you get the doll first, you would give her the corpse.)

(But in the end, you went back on your word.)

(That's why you were punished by the rules.)

(Once again, you find yourself in a dilemma.)

(Giving the corpse to the woman would drive her to madness and ultimately lead to her killing you.)

(Not giving the woman the corpse means you cannot obtain the crucial item.)

(Deceiving the woman would result in instant death due to violating the rules.)

(You grab your hair and furrow your brow, thinking hard.)

(You shift your thinking.)

(Is there any way to complete the trade and avoid being killed?)

(Give the woman a fake item?)

(Impossible. The woman would never fail to recognize her own corpse, and you have no way of creating a fake corpse on the spot.)

(Poison the corpse?)

(A spark lights up in your mind.)

(Once the woman receives her corpse, her first reaction is to swallow it. If you can poison the corpse, it will undoubtedly be hundred percent effective.)

(If you can poison the woman, then you don't have to worry about her killing you.)

(Your trade with her is merely giving her the corpse, but if she insists on consuming her own corpse and eventually dies from poisoning, that's not your concern.)

(But what kind of poison can kill the woman?)

(She's already a ghost, does a ghost fear poison?)

(You make a bold assumption.)

(After consuming the corpse, the woman will transform into a creature similar to Petz. So, if you can make her ingest medication intended for patients, it might delay this transformation.)

(A realization dawns upon you.)

(You put on the bird beak mask and sneak into the hospital's pharmacy.)

(This is the substance you consume three times a day and then vomit three times.)

(You stuff all the pills into the mouth of the corpse, shaking the corpse's neck to make sure all the pills fall into its abdomen.)

(You wear Toto's mask and return to the secret room in the second basement.)

(When the woman sees you, she immediately raises her head.)

(Woman: Who are you? Why do you have my daughter's mask? What do you want?)

(You: I'm here to negotiate with you.)

(Woman: What?)

(You: I found your corpse, and I want to make a deal with you, exchanging your corpse for the doll you have.)

(You engage in a conversation with the woman, and she ultimately agrees to trade with you.)

(You place the corpse on the ground.)

(The woman hands the doll over to you.)

(Before you could put away the doll, the woman had already swallowed the corpse.)

(The woman let out a painful groan and immediately transformed into a black giant monster.)

(Instinctively, you take out the red pill and elephant mask.)

(The woman's body collapses suddenly, reverting back to a human form, struggling on the ground.)

(Woman: You deceiver! You actually poisoned me?)

(You: How was I supposed to know you were going to eat it? I thought you were going to use it as firewood.)

(The woman's eyes roll back, and foam spills from her mouth.)

(You worry that the woman might play dead again.)

(You take out a hammer from your toolbox and smash the woman's head.)

(You exit the secret room.)

(You wipe off the blood on yourself and retrieve the doll from your kangaroo pants.)

(You unzip the back of the doll and take out a red access card.)

(The front of the access card depicts a half-red, half-black clown symbol, which is the logo of the Weird World Live Broadcast Channel.)

(With a gulp, you turn the card over, revealing red bloody words.)

("With it, you can go anywhere.")

("Including the underground third basement.")

(You feel shocked.)

(You thought the hospital having two underground levels was already extreme, but you never expected there would be a third underground level.)

(The mental pollution in the second basement was already intense, so what would the deeper third basement be like?)

(After contemplating for a moment, you pick up the red access card and head to the elevator.)

(The elevator control panel only goes down to the second basement; there's no button for the third basement.)

(You place the red access card on the sensor area.)

(The entire elevator turns bright red.)

(Only one floor remains on the control panel—Level -3.)

(You press the button.)

(The elevator opens.)

(A pitch-black scene lies outside.)

(You take off your mask.)

(The darkness outside the elevator dissipates, revealing a clean and narrow corridor with a red woolen carpet on the floor.)

(You step onto the carpet.)

(The corridor becomes narrower as you walk further, and eventually, you have to turn sideways to pass through.)

(You finally exit the corridor.)

(Ahead of you is a massive movie theater.)

(There are ten rows of seats in the audience, but not a single person is sitting there.)

(You turn your head towards the projection room, and the projector is flickering non-stop. You vaguely notice a figure standing beside it.)

(You enter the projection room.)

(Sitting beside the projector is a woman with long hair. She has her hair tied up in a high ponytail and stares straight ahead at the blank screen.)

(You: Toto?)

(The woman turns her head.)

(You notice that this woman's face bears a striking resemblance to yours as if you were long-lost siblings.)

(Toto: That's right, it's me. It seems you followed my hints quite well.)

(You: Did you write all the bloody hints?)

(Toto: Indeed, but many of them were written when I was delirious. I don't know if those nonsensical words had any impact on you.)

(Toto's tone sends chills down your spine. Like you, she doesn't fit into this world.)

(You: Who are you exactly?)

(Toto: According to the rules, I can't tell you. You came here to seek the truth, right?)

(You: That's correct.)

(Toto: Do you know what film I'm going to screen?)

(Without hesitation, you take out the film reel for "Monster Siege.")

(Toto inserts the film into the projector and grabs a new pair of 3D glasses from the worktable, handing them to you.)

(Toto: Go outside and enjoy the show.)

(You nod and take a seat in the audience area with the new glasses in hand.)

(The glasses have no instructions or text, so you put them on directly.)

(A pitch-black scene unfolds before your eyes.)

(Your vision is pitch black.)

(You can't perceive anything.)

(You wait in the void for half an hour, but nothing happens.)

(You terminate the deduction.)

Gu Yi opened his eyes and frustratedly rubbed his head.

"What's going on?"

Supporting his chin, Gu Yi pondered carefully.

It was the first time he had encountered such a situation during his deductions.

Normally, even if he triggered a death flag, his talent would still simulate the scene of his demise.

However, this time, he lost all perception, as if he had fallen into a void.

He had waited in complete emptiness for half an hour, and still, nothing happened.

"Calm down and think about the reasons."

Gu Yi took a deep breath and silently contemplated, summarizing the clues he had gathered.

1. "I's" mother could be killed, and he has just deducted the safest and most effective method to do so.

2. After killing "I's" mother, he can obtain a red access card from the doll.

3. Using the red access card, he can enter the hospital's inner world, the third basement.

4. On the third basement, he will encounter "I," that is Toto, who looked identical to him.

5. After watching "Monster Siege" in Toto's theatre, he will be trapped in a void. The theatre seemed to be an unsafe place.

Gu Yi recalled everything he had experienced and considered if he had overlooked any clues that hindered his progress.

"No, there's only this last path."

Gu Yi shook his head with determination.

He had recollected all his experiences and deducted scenarios, ultimately concluding that the theatre on the hospital's third basement was the only lead.

But...

Why did I end up in a void while watching the movie?

No!

It wasn't a void.

Gu Yi suddenly understood the crucial point.

During these days, he had become overly reliant on his talent of infinite deduction, to the point where he forgot that his talent also had limitations.

-- Infinite deduction couldn't simulate anything related to the "Weird World" system!

Whenever he made progress in the dungeon process and received rewards from the system, his infinite deduction couldn't calculate those aspects.

It was an inevitable limitation because the talent of infinite deduction was originally bestowed upon him by the Weird World system.

Recalling the appearance of the red access card, he could understand it better.

The front of the access card depicted the logo of the "Weird World" live broadcast channel, which was a clear hint.

In that underground theater, Gu Yi might not only collect clues about the dungeon world but can also learn about the entire Weird World. Hence, he couldn't utilize his talent to speculate the details within it.

To explore the underground theatre, Gu Yi had to go there personally.

"Phew, it's not a big deal."

Gu Yi let out a long sigh and put on the bird mask, walking out of the toilet.

First, he stole a box of pills and hid them inside "I's" mother's corpse.

Then, he put on Toto's handmade mask and went skillfully to the secret room in the second basement.

This time, Gu Yi was facing "I's" mother in reality. Although he had interacted with her many times before, facing her in person still evoked a suffocating feeling deep in his soul.

"Who are you? Why do you have Toto's mask?"

"It doesn't matter who I am," Gu Yi cut straight to the point. "I can give you back your corpse, but the condition is that you must give me your doll."

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

Mother looked confused, even her hair behind her eerily floated in the air.

Gu Yi felt no fear. As long as he wore Toto's mask, Toto's mother wouldn't harm him in the slightest.

Snap!

Gu Yi took out his mother's corpse from his kangaroo pants, and Toto's mother immediately panicked.

"This is... this is my body, I can feel it!"

"So, can we discuss the terms now?"

"I have nothing to discuss with you!"

Gu Yi sneered, stepping on the corpse, and lifted the hammer towards his own mask. "I don't want to waste time with you. Are you willing to make the exchange or not?"

"Wait, I agree!"

Mother immediately dropped her intimidating demeanor and reverted to her human form.

She felt extremely strange.

She had clearly encountered this man for the first time, yet he seemed to have met her before.

He always seemed to predict her actions in advance, even her inner thoughts were clear to him.

"I's" Mother suspected there was deception involved.

But she had no choice but to agree to his demands.

Without reclaiming her body, she would be trapped here forever.

"Recieve with one hand, deliver with the other."

Toto's Mother tossed her doll.

Gu Yi caught the doll and casually placed the corpse on the floor.

Gu Yi tucked the doll into his pants and coldly watched as Toto's mother swallowed her own corpse.

"Ah, I've finally regained my strength. I'm going to... kill you!"

Toto's Mother suddenly transformed into a monster, extending black claws toward Gu Yi.

Gu Yi calmly stood his ground, gazing into Toto's mother's eyes with a mocking smile.

"Why? Are you poisoned?"

Mother clutched her stomach, collapsing on the ground, gradually losing strength.

Foam foamed from her mouth, her body convulsed, and she lost consciousness.

Gu Yi took out the hammer, prepared to do as he did in his deduction, smashing "I's" mother's head.

"Good deeds are rewarded and evil deeds have consequences. She wanted to kill me, but in the end, she was poisoned to death by drugs. She has received the retribution she deserves. There's no need to be so ruthless."

Gu Yi remembered the words on the mask and ultimately put away the hammer.

—In this replica, one must never resort to extreme measures.

Gu Yi tore open the doll and retrieved the red access card from inside, confirming the prompt from the system.

"You have obtained a special plot item in the dungeon: Red Access Card."

"Your plot exploration level has increased."

"Current exploration progress: 67%."

"You can choose one reward from the following options."

"1. Increase your strength by 10%."

"2. Increase your agility by 10%."

"3. Increase your stamina by 10%."

Seeing these rewards, Gu Yi's face immediately fell. "How unlucky! This is a decryption-type dungeon, what use is enhancing physical attributes? Why can't it reward me with enhanced mental power?"

After thinking for a while, Gu Yi ultimately chose to strengthen his stamina by 10%.

In the next moment, a white light flashed before Gu Yi's eyes, and he felt his body rejuvenated as if he had become much more comfortable all over. Gu Yi opened his clothes and glanced at himself. Even the black fur on his body seemed to have reduced.

"So that's how it is. Enhancing stamina can also increase my resistance to illness. In the end, my current condition is similar to being sick. It seems I made the right choice in enhancing stamina."

Gu Yi let out a long sigh of relief, clutching the red access card in his hand, and headed for the nearest elevator.